Airship mooring mast and controls therefor



May 7, 1929. J. J. GRAIN 1,712,104

AIRSHIP MOORING MAST AND CONTROLS THEREFOR Filed Feb. 8, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 m'z zvro/e JOHN J. CEH/A/ A TTORNE VS May 7, 1929.

J. J. CRAIN 1,712,104

AIRSHIP MOORING MAST AND CONTROLS THEREFOR Filed Feb. 8, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 v u i [N VENTOR ATTORNEYS May 7, 1929.

J. J. CRAIN AIRSHIP MOORING MAST AND CONTROLS THEREFOR Filed Feb. 8, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 AIRSHIP MOORING MAST AND CONTROLS THEREFOR Filed Feb. 8, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 m VENTOR JOHN J. CBfi/N A TTORNE x lutely prevented.

JOHN J. ,GRAIN, OF WATER-BURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TC! THE WATERBURY TOOL COMPANY, OF WATERBUBY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION 013 CONNECTICUT.

AIRSHIP MOORIZNG MAST AND CONTROLS THEREFOR.

Application filed February s, was. Serial no. 2am.

This invention relates to mooring masts for airships of the lighter than air type and has for its principal object to provide a new and improved construction for such use,

whereby damage to the airship in bringing it to its mooring will be substantially abso- Considered more specifically, theinvention relates to the operating mechanism for the winch or winches which haul in the mooring cable, by means of which the ship is anchored tothe mooring tower or mast.

A further, object is to provide a manually operable control located at the head or top of the mooring tower for governing the oper at-ion of a distant driving mechanism by means of which the winch for the mooring cable is driven.

Another object is to provide a pair of controls for the winch operating mechanism, one located immediately adjacent to said mechanism and the other located at thetop ot', the tower, either of the controls being equally edect-ive to govern the operation of k the winch driving mechanism.

A further object is to associate with the manual controls, suitable indicating means for indicating the pull or tension exerted upon the mooring cable and the speed at which it is being hauled in.

The above and other objects will appear more fully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof,

' wherein Fig. l is a side elevation of a mooring tower constructed in accordance with the principles of my invention and showing an airship moored thereto; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the winch for the mooring cable and the driving mechanism for said winch; Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the structure shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the hydraulic pump which forms a part of a hydraulic speed gear, by means of which the cable winch is driven and showing the manual control therefor; Fig. 5 is a side elevation partly in section of the structure shown in Fig. 4:; Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the distan t manual control for the structure shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and which control is located on the top of the tower, and Fig. 7 is a side elevation partly in section of the control shown in Fig. 6.

The operation of bringing a large airship to its mooring without injuring the ship is one of very great difficulty. It is of course desirable to complete the operation in the shortest possible time. If the work is being done against the force of a strong wind, great care must be exercised to avoid placing too much pull or tension upon the mooringcable; otherwise, there is danger or" pulling the ship apart. The mooring cable is usually attached to the nose of the ship and is hauled 'in by suitable power driven machinery. In

order that the ship be properly moored, the nose thereof should be brought as close to the top of the tower as possible, so that there will be no appreciable length of cable running from the ships nose to the tower, because it a length of cable were permitted to extend to the top of the tower and the nose of the ship, gusts of wind would tend to drive the ships nose from time to time against the tower, which obviously might cause considerable damage to the ship. As the power driven mechanism for driving the winch for the mooring cable is usually located at the base of the tower, it has been quite dilhcult to bring the ships nose into the desired close relationship with the tower top without causing injury to the ship.

With the constructions heretofore employed for mooring towers, it has been the practice to station a man at the top of the tower, who signals to an operator located at the base of the'tower, for running the winch operating mechanism. This method of operation has gears consist of a pump and motor, the

pump usually being known as the A end and the motor as the B end. The construction of the pump and motor is similar and each comprise a rotating cylinder block having a plurality of cylinders therein, in each of which cylinders, a piston is mounted for reciprocation. The pistons are connected to a swash plate, rotatably mounted in a race, provided in a tilting box. When the tilting box is at right angles to the axis of rotation of the cylinder block, the pistons have no stroke and no fluid is pumped by the pump. This is called the neutral position. The swash plate and tilting box of the motor are usually held at a fixed inclination to the axis of rotation, while the swash plate and tilting box of the motor are adapted to be moved to different adjusted positions to vary the output of the pump. lhe pump is connected by suitable conduits with the motor to cause the fluid pumped by the pump to be circulated to and through the motor under pressure. Adjustment of the angle of inclination of the pumps swash plate is made by means of a control shaft. suitably connected to the tilting box. In the installation to be hereinafter described more fully, the control shaft of the pump or A end has connected to it, a handwheel, adapted to be operated by an operator at the base of the tower. The control shaft of the pump is connected by any suitable means, such as a cable or the like with a manually operable control located at the top of the tower, in order that the speed gear may be controlled either from the top or from the base of the tower.

As shown in the drawings, the numeral 10 indicates a mooring tower, which may be of any suitable construction. Located at the base of the tower and preferably enclosed within a shed or shelter 11 is the winch driving mechanism.

The winch and its driving mechanism as shown more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing consists of a cable drum 12, rotatablymounted in suitable bearing brackets 13, bolted to a supporting base or platform 14. One end of the shaft 15 of the drum 12 extends into a reduction gearing box 16 containing reduction gearing of any suitable construction. For the purpose of rendering the driving mechanism as compact as possible, the driving shaft 17 which leads to the reduction gearing 16 is extended at right angles to the shaft 15 of the cable drum. The shaft 17 is connected by means of a flexible coupling 18 with the driving shaft 19 of a fluid pressure motor 20, said motor 20 being the B end of a \Vaterbury speed gear. The motor 20 is connected by means of the pipes 21 and 22, with a fluid pressure pump 23, said pump being the A end of a ater-bury gear.

In the specific constructional example selected for illustration, the motor 20 has its axis of rotation located at right angles to the axis of rotation of the pump 23, this being done to render the installation as compact as possible. It will, of course, however, be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular relative locations of the axes of the rotating parts above described and that if desired, the driving members could all be arranged with their main driving shafts in axial alignment. The pump 23 has its driving shaft 24 connected, preferably by means of a flexible coupling 25, with any suitable prime mover or source of power, such as the electric motor 26.

As hereinbefore pointed out, the pump 23 and motor 20 are similar in their main constructional details. The construction of the pump is shown most clearly in Figs. 4 and 5 of the drawing, and a description of the pump will suffice for that of the motor. Secured to the driving shaft 24 of the pump,

so as to be rotatable therewith, is a cylinderblock or barrel 27, said barrel being provided with a plurality of cylinders 28 extending in parallelism with the axis of rotation of the shaft 24 and barrel. Each cylinder 28 has slidably mounted therein for reciprocation, a piston 29, which is connected by means of a piston rod 30 with a swash plate 31. The swash plate 81 is rotatably mounted in a race formed in a tilting box 32; each cylinder 28 communicates at its inner end with a port or conduit 33, adapted to be brought alternately into registry with a pair of areaate shaped ports (not shown), provided in the end wall 32 of the pump casing. The arcuate shaped ports communicate with the one ends of the conduits 21, 22, which conduits at their other end are in communication with the pair of similar arcuate ports provided in the motor 20. The motor 20 is provided with a rotating cylinder barrel, cylinders, pistons, swash plate and tilting box. The tilting box and swash plateof the motor are held at a fixed inclination and the speed of rotation of the motor, as well as the direction of rotation thereof, is regulated by varying the angular inclination of the swash plate and tilting box of the pump.

The tilting'box 32 of the pump is secured character 35 to the lower end of a control shaft 36. The control shaft 36 has its upper end threaded for engagement with the threaded bore 37 provided in the lower end of a hand wheel shaft 38. The lower end of the hand wheel shaft projects through a stufling box into the pump casing for engagement with the control shaft 36. The shaft 38 is journaled in a bearing 40, provided in a bracket 41, secured to the top of the pump casing, and said shaft 38 is rotatable in said bearing, but is held against movement longitudinally thereof.

The bracket 41 also forms part of a housing 42, in which is mounted a pulley 43, the purpose of which pulley will hereinafter be more fully described. The upper end of the shaft 38 projects through the housing 42 and has secured thereto a hand wheel 44. Secured to the shaft 38 between the housing 42 and the hand wheel 44 is an indicating dial 45, which is rotatable with the shaft 38 and is provided with suitable indicia adapted to cooperate with a fixed pointer 46, to indicate in feet per minute the rate at which the mooring cable is wound upon the cable drum 12.

lhe mooring cable 50 has one end thereof anchored, by means of a 'llurks head, or any other means, to the drum 12. An automatic spooling device 51, which may be of any suitable construction, has its shaft 52 connected by means of a reduction gear mounted in the gear box 58 with the shaft 15 of the cable drum 12, the cable 50 passing through said spooling device, so that when the cable is hauled in by the drum, it will be wound neatly thereon. After passing through the spooling device, the cable is trained about suitable idlers, such as indicated by the reference character 5a and passes upwardly and out through the top of the tower.

The pulley 423 hereinbefore referred to, which is secured upon the hand wheel shaft 38, has trained about it an endless control cable 55, which passes out through suitable apertures from the side of the housing 42 and is trained about idlers 56. llhe control cable 50 preferably passes through the center of the hollow standard, and idler rolls 6C are pro vided adjacent to the pulley 57 for holding the cable 55 in contacting engagement with the periphery of said pulley. The pulley 5'? is keyed upon a shaft 61, preferably yournaled in anti-friction bearings 62, seated within the housing 58. The shaft 61 extends to the housing 58 and has keyed to the outer end thereof a hand wheel 63. Keyed to the shaft 61 between the hand wheel 63 and housing 58 is an indicating dial 64, similar in construction to the indicating dial l5 and pro- "ided with indicia corresponding to the indicia upon the dial 45. A. pointer 65 is fixed to the housing 58 for co-operation with the dial 6%.

For the purpose of indicating the amount of pull or tension placed upon the cable, the arcuate port of the pump 23, which is the pressure port when the mooring cable 50 is being hauled in, has connected thereto a pres sure gauge 65, preferably graduated to indicate the pull placed upon the cable when it is being hauled in, for exampla'in thousand pounds. The pressure gauge 66 is connected to the pump casing by means of a pipe 67 having a fitting 68, to which is connected a pipe 69 leading to a similar pressure gauge Z0 mounted upon the standard 59.

For the purpose of enabling either the operator stationed at the base of the tower or the operator stationed at the top of the tower to determine readily when the control shaft of the pump is set at neutral position, the following means are provided: Secured to the hand wheel shaft 38 (see Fig. 5) is a disk 71 having a notch 72 cut in its periphery with which is adapted to be engaged a spring pressed stop 73, the notch and stop being so constructedand arranged that when the control shaft is brought to neutral position, the notch will spring into engagement and lock the control shaft against rotation. The construction of the notch and stop is such that while the disk can be rotated readily by either the hand wheel 44: or the hand wheel 63, sufii cicnt extra pressure must be exerted on either of the hand Wheels to enable the operator to tell by the feel thereof that the spring pressed stop is in engagement with the notch.

The operation is as follows: Assuming that the airship has approached its mooring grounds and that it is desired to secure it to the mooring tower, a sufiicient length of the mooring cable is paid out and the end of the mooring cable is hauled up to the airship by means of a line dropped from the ship. When the end of the mooring cable has been secured to the nose of the ship, the cable is hauled in by the winch driving mechanism. The motor 26 rotating at uniform speed drives the rotating barrel of the pump, and the control shaft of the pump is set either by the operator stationed at the base of the tower, or the operator stationed at the top thereof to cause the pump to deliver fluid under pressure to the motor 20 to drive the latter at the desired rate of speed, such speed upon the cable indicated by the pressure gauges 66 and 70 is noted by the operator, care being taken that the pull upon the cable will not exceed an amount above safe limits.

As the ship is brought close to the top of the I tower, the control of the driving mechanism is, preferably left to an operator stationed upon the top platform, the manipulation of the control shaft of the pump being accomplished as readily by means of the hand wheel 63, as by the hand wheel 44. It will be understood that as the hand wheels shaft 38 is rotated, whether by means of the hand wheel as or the hand wheel 63, the threaded engagement of the lower end of the hand wheel shaft'38, with the threaded upper end of the control shaft 36, will cause said control shaft'to be moved upwardly or downwardly, as the case may be, to vary the inclination of the swash plate 31 and tilting box 32, thereby to vary the stroke of the pistons, and as a result the output of the pump. 'lhe swash plate and tilting box of the motor being fixed, any variation in the output of the pump will produce a similar variation of the speed of rotation of the motor.

For the purpose of insuring that there will be no air pockets within the fluid pressure gear system and to compensate for changes in the volume of the fluid contained in such system, due to temperature changes in such fluid, a combined expansion and storage tank is mounted at a point above the highest level of the system, in accordance with the usual construction of devices of this character.

The use of a. hydraulic speed gear for an apparatus of the character herein described has marked advantages, because of the property possessed by such gears of infinite speed changes from zero to the maximum speed at which the gear is designed to run, because of the fact that speed changes can be made within very narrow limits and without jars or shocks, because a comparatively great speed change can be made by a relatively small movement of the control shaft of the pump, because the speed gear responds very quickly to changes in the adjustment of the control shaft, and because it is also capable of delivering a high torque at low speeds, as well as at high speeds. Because of these properties of the hydraulic speed gear, it will therefore be seen that the bringing of the nose of the ship into very close relationship to the top of the mooring tower can be accomplished at a very slow speed of movement of the ship.

It will be understood that many changes and modifications of the specific constructional example selected for illustration may be resorted to without departing from the principles of my invention.

I claim:

1. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, located at the base of said tower, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear for operating said drum, a controlling device for governing the speed of rotation of said speed gear at the base of said tower, and a controlling device located at the top of said tower and connected with said speed gear, whereby the speed of said gear may be regulated either from the base or from the top of said tower.

2. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, located at the base of said tower, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear for operating said drum, and a controlling device for governing the speed of rotation of said speed gear located at the topof said tower, whereby the speed of rotation of said gear and said cable drum may be controlled by an operator stationed at the top of the tower.

3. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure motor, a prime mover of uniform speed for driving said pump, connections be tween said pump and motor for causing fluid pumped by said pump to drive said motor, said pump being provided with an adjustable control shaft for varying its output, a manually operable hand-wheel located adjacent to said pump for actuating said control shaft, a second manually operable hand-wheel located at the top of said tower, and connec tions between said two hand-wheels to cause them to be moved in unison.

4c. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending to the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure actuated motor connected with said pump, a prime mover of constant speed for driving said pump, said pump being provided with an adjust-able control shaft for varying its output, a manually operable hand-wheel for actuating said control shaft, and indicating means operatively associated with said hand-wheel for indicating the linear speed at which said mooring cable is driven for a certain setting of said hand-wheel and control shaft.

5. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending to the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure actuated motor connected with said pump, a prime mover of constant speed for driving said pump, said pump being provided with an adjustable control shaft for varying its output, a manually operable hand-wheel for actuating said control shaft, and indicating means operatively associated with said hand wheel for indicating the linear speedat which said mooring cable is driven for a certain setting of said handwheel and control shaft, and indicating means operatively associated with said hydraulic speed gear for indicating the pull exerted by said cable.

6, The combination with a mooring tower for arrships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable securedto said drum and extending to the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure actuated motor connected with said pump, a prime mover of constant speed for driving said pump, said pump being provided with an adjustable control shaft for varying' its output, a manually operable handwheel for actuating said control shaft, and indicating means operatively associated with said hydraulic speed gear for indicating the pull exerted by said cable.

7. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, located at the base of said tower, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear for operating said drum, said gear comprising a fluid pressure pump of variable output and a fluid pressure motor connected therewith, said pump having an adjustable control shaft, a controlling device for governing the speed of rotation of said speed gear located at the top of said tower, whereby the speed of rotation of said gear and said cable drum may be controlled by an operator stationed at the top of the tower, and a spring-pressed locking device associated with said shaftto lock it yieldingly in its neutral or no-output position.

8. The combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure motor, a prime mover of uniform speed for driving said pump, connections between said pump and motor for causing fluid pumped by said pump to drive said motor, said pump being provided with an adjustable control shaft for varying its output, a manually operable hand-wheel located adjacent to said pump for actuating said control shaft, a second manually operable hand-wheel located at the top of said tower, a pair of pul leys, one connected to each hand-wheel, and a control cable extending from the base to the top of said tower and trained about said pulleys whereby said hand wheels are connected to rotate in unison.

9; 'I he combination with a mooring tower for airships, of a cable drum, a mooring cable secured to said drum and extending from the top of said tower, a hydraulic speed gear comprising a fluid pressure pump and a fluid pressure motor, a prime mover of uniform speed for driving said pump, connections be tween said pump and motor for causing fluid pumped by said pump to drive said motor, said pump, motor and cable drum having their axes of rotation arranged in different planes to provide a compact assembly.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JQHNJ, CRAIN. 

